This is going to be a long winded story but I want to explain everything so you guys can offer me some advice. Me and my buddy got an opportunity to go in on a lease the other day. It was roughly 360 acres with about 40ac. of soybeans. In the 2 days we looked over the property we seen 3 bucks (1 1/2 year olds) and about 15-20 does. It has been managed for about the last 10 years and has an 8 point or better rule on bucks and your allowed 1 doe per year. There is only 6 other people who hunt it. The land owner no longer hunts and seems to be a very trustworthy guy. After looking the property over we paid our money and marked where we had planned to hunt after Tennessee's youth firearm season. We finally make it out to the property for a evening hunt after we both got off work. My buddy went to his stand and I went to mine. We hunted that evening seeing a few does but not being able to connect with one, we headed back to the truck to head home. As I get to the truck my buddy calls me and tells me I need to get down to where he is because he found a feeder. I walk to him and we look at the feeder and there was corn on the ground and inside the feeder. It is illegal to bait in Tennessee and we both got disgusted. We immediately called the land owner and explained the situation. He said he had no idea it was there but had a good idea who put it there. We told him that we were going in the next day and removing the feeder and getting every last kernel of corn off the ground. I haven't hunted since and do not plan to after seeing this. I told the landowner I wasn't going to hunt this year because of this because I didn't feel comfortable hunting with someone who is going to knowingly break the law. He said he understood and would refund my money but who knows if I will ever see it. My question is what would you do in this situation? Would you not hunt the property ever or wait till next year get to know the landowner better and the other people who hunt the property and hunt then? I would hate to lose the money I paid and never get to hunt but I am not about to hunt a property where other people are breaking the law. They said it was left over from the summer where they had a trail camera but either way it should have been removed prior to the season. I'm not sure what to do... It is a great place but I do not want to hunt where someone thinks they are above the law. He mentioned that the people on the lease now do not have an agreement for next year and kind of made it seem like they will not be there next year but I can not say for sure if they will or not. Any advice on what I should do??
Seems to me that guy should get the boot from the lease. Did you sign contracts? (I sure hope so) I would clean it up good make sure he is history and hunt.
I would talk to the landowner about it. He would probably be in trouble if any of his lessees were breaking the law and he knew about it. He may kick the other guy off the lease after finding out about this. Worth fighting for if it is a really good location
Why are you punishing yourself for the actions of someone else? Do as you said, get the feeder out of there and then hunt. I have news for you, no matter where you go someone is either baiting, spotlighting or otherwise poaching. It sucks, but it is what it is. All you can do is play by the rules and enjoy yourself. Worrying about the other guy is only going to spoil it for you. P.S.. I would call the wardens and let them know what you found though, before you remove it, just to be safe. They may want to investigate.
I did talk to the local officer and he said to talk to the landowner and if it wasn't taken care of that way to call him back and he would take care of it. The guy who is suspected of doing it farms the land and there is a contract signed on that so the land owner didn't want to kick him off for what ever reason. I don't want to punish myself but something just seems strange about the whole situation. As far as hunting the officer said no matter what once the bait is removed we still couldn't hunt it for at least nine days via the law. That means I wont be able to hunt it till the second week of muzzleloader which I am afraid might have the deer really pressured. Where the feeder was placed it was very hard to see and if it wasn't for my buddy getting turned around on his way out we would have never know it was there. I just don't want to get in trouble for something I have no part in and it scares me that it may be possible for other things to be going on that we are not aware of also.
I don't get it, you said the place was 360 acres, just don't hunt near the feeder? No one said it was illegal to hunt the entire property, just near the feeder.
Yeah talk to the landowner about kicking that guy out , but don't leave yourself that wont accomplish anything.
The officer didn't say it exactly like this but basically implied that if you hunt the property with the feeder on it even if you don't hunt over it you can still get in trouble for it. I'm not sure exactly the law but he basically said no hunting on the property at all if there is a feeder. The feeder is gone now so that is no longer a problem other then we can't hunt for at least 9 days to be on the safe side. Its hunting with someone who will knowingly break the law and will potentially get the other people on the lease in trouble. I think I'm going to meet with the other people on the lease and see if we can convince the landowner to kick the other guy from the lease. It seems like the only fair and right thing to do.
To answer your initial question "What Would You Do?" I would stop making drama where there doesn't need to be any. You informed the landowner, you removed the feeder, you called the authorities. (Which I'm sure the landowner is thrilled about by the way). Now hunt. But, you've created another issue. Technically, all of the other hunters can't hunt for 9 days. So you're possibly killing some poor dude's vacation time for something that he may not know anything about. Now, you've put the landowner in a predicament when all of these hunters want 9 days of money back. The reality of the situation is this. If the feeder is from a person who is farming the land, the landowner will choose him over you 100% of the time. It's his livelihood. The small amount of money that you've given him isn't going to feed his family for the next year. So you'll lose this battle. On the other hand, this could've been an honest mistake, maybe it actually is from a camera spot left over from summer. Did you see a treestand in the area? If not, I would assume that the landowner is telling the truth, certainly if someone is willing to bait in a state where it's illegal, he'd certainly be more than willing to hunt the spot. Maybe it's from a person who was considering hunting the land. Maybe he put out a camera and feeder, decided it wasn't for him and moved on. Maybe when he moved on, he couldn't take the feeder for any number of reasons. No ladder, no wrench, not truck, etc. Either way, owners of any type of land, hunting, farming, camping, only want to get a check and be left alone. Once their starts to be drama, you'll have a hard time being invited back. So, to answer your question, "What Would You Do".. I'd get my money's worth and hunt that property until I couldn't see straight.
Me personally - I wouldn't want anything to do with a lease when the other members weren't responsible enough to remove feeders. I don't care if they even "forgot". I would ask for a refund and look for a cleaner operation. Not worth getting in trouble over.
Also now that the game warden is aware of the situation I wouldn't be surprised if he were to make visits later this year and could possibly find a feeder on a different part of the property or say next year or other illegal activities.
and if they tell the guy that he can't hunt anymore but he can still farm he will more than likely go out of his way to ruin the deer hunting. Personally I'd wait the 9 days, hunt till I can't hunt anymore and then I'd not renew the lease to hunt their next year.
But you have to be careful to lump all of the other hunters into the same group. They may not know anything about it. This is 360 acres of land. Hunter himself looked over the property for a couple of days, and not until they were hunting did his friend find it. So don't be too quick to judge the other hunters. They simply may not know.
I agree they might not know. IMO save yourself the drama and find a new lease where you have a better connection with the other lease holders . I wonder how many times the DNR has heard, " I swear I didn't know that feeder was even there!" Lol
I was in no way trying to cause an issue. I was only trying to do the responsible thing and do what was right. The landowner had no problem with me talking to the wildlife officers and said that he may contact them himself once he did some digging around and figured out why it was there. If it was deliberately put there for the purpose of hunting he was going to contact the wardens and tell them what was going on to keep the other people on the lease and himself out of trouble. If the other people on the lease get upset that they can't hunt for 9 days then they can take it up with the guy who started the problem and not me. And it could have been an honest mistake but either way it is a mistake that should not happen and is very irresponsible. I do not want to hunt with a irresponsible hunter when his mistakes could potentially cause severe problems for me.
